Business was already slumping, as South African coal mines pushed aggressively to carve out a share of the vital European market, said Charles Whitten, president of Pier IX Terminal Co.

European boycotts of South Africa, to protest the country's racist apartheid system, ended last year and South African mines moved fast to take advantage of that, Whitten said.

In addition, eastern European nations were also trying to boost coal sales, while the opening of major new mines in Venezuela and Colombia meant more millions of tons of coal landed in Europe, Whitten said.

The result was a drop in prices for steam coal - those grades that are burned by electric power plants - that many American mines couldn't match, he said.

``On top of that we had a couple of warm winters in Europe,'' Whitten said. ``It all added up to say: `Mr. U.S., we don't need you for steam coal'.''

Coal shipments from the Peninsula will be down by at least 2.4 million tons this year because of the strike, according to local maritime executives.

Whitten estimated the strike cut shipments from Pier IX by 400,000 tons, which will probably hold tonnage this year down to about 4.4 million tons. That is well below the peak of 8.7 million tons his pier shipped in 1991.

Pier IX had to cut staff to about 40, compared with employment of more than 80 in 1991. The selective strike hurt Pier IX because it handles shipments from two Consolidation Coal mines targeted by the UMW.

Charles E. Brinley, president of Dominion Terminal Associates, said he estimated the coal strike would end up cutting shipments at his pier by at least two million tons.

The strikers targeted two of the four partners in Dominion Terminals, Peabody Holding Co and Ashland Coal Inc.

In all, Dominion Terminal's shipments this year will probably fall to about 12.3 million tons from 18.1 million in 1992. Brinley said the soft market for U.S. coal will probably hold next year's business down to about 14 million tons.

Norfolk Southern's Lamberts Point coal piers weren't hurt by the strike, said spokesman Robert Fort. But he said shipments this year will be below last year's 31.2 million tons, because of the soft world market.

The UMW contract was one of the most important ever for the union, which was trying to fight a decline in its numbers by winning the right to represent workers at newly opened mines.

The contract allows laid-off and working UMW members to claim 60 percent of all new jobs created by coal association members, their parent companies and other affiliates, whether union or nonunion.

It also gives miners raises totaling $1.30 an hour over the first three years of the contract.

The union can reopen the contract to negotiate additional wages in the fourth and fifth years.

In the early returns, UMW members were approving the contract by margins of more than 60 percent, considered to be an unusually large margin for the union.